Psychic Spies
by Brian Sherlock
Summary: (Second chapter's up)I don't want to give too much away, I'll say this: READ IT!! (There, I said it. gimme my money!)
1. Bartering

Hello. Brian reporting. Just saying that I'm writing a Fanfic on Starcraft, before you jump into a Zerg lair. I'm just glad that we all can experiencethis for ourselves. The blood draining from your brain as you fly deftly, void of gravity or any other element and slaughter your opponents one by  
one. Thank goodness for children.  
  
Disclaimer: Blizzard entertainment made the game Starcraft and all the characters in that game belong to them. No one except them has the immediate rights to the game. However, since I am not doing this for any profit, this should suit them just fine.  
  
Chapter 1: Bartering  
  


The Terrans were slowly retreating, engaged in a mighty battle with the Zerg. Up at the front lines, the Firebats were literally toasting the insectoid creatures, while the Marines in the back line covered the Firebats, and tried to keep the Mutilisks and Guardians at bay. Every so often, a team of Zerglings would attack one of the front line Firebats, knock him out and drag him off. Or they would just kill him. The field turned from green to patches of deep brown and splotches of purple with all the blood and gore streaming the large green grass blades.

"AHH! HELP!!"

One of the Firebats had been knocked over by the Zerglings and was being ferociously attacked. Before anyone could act, Commander Raynor screamed, "LEAVE HIM! THEY'RE STILL COMING!!"  
As the Firebat was pulled off by the Zerglings towards the Command Center the Zerg had infested, one of the Marines ran forward in a blind fury and screamed, "MITCH!!! NOOOOOO!!!"

"Private! Get back here!"

The marine ignored him and still charged forward, sticking the muzzle of his gun into one of the Zergling's mouths and firing off a few rounds. "BROTHER!!"

Raynor's words could no longer be heard by the young Marine as he kept charging forward toward his unconscious brother. But he, too was knocked over and out by several Zerglings and dragged off. After a while, the Firebats were overwhelmed and started running the other direction. The Marines followed, and the Zerglings uncharacteristically ran off.  
  


"SHIT!" Raynor punched his fist through a locker at the base. "Where did we go wrong? We planned out all the strategy MONTHS before! We got 100,000 troops lined up! We had tanks, Wraiths, Battlecruisers! Even those Psy emitters that drive them crazy! But, no... fifty of our men were lost! We should have been able to eradicate them!! What next?"

"Raynor!"

Raynor looked over just in time to see the magistrate. _"Oh goddammit,"_ Raynor thought to himself as he face faulted. "What now?!"

"Raynor. I'd like to apologize."

"What?" Raynor couldn't believe what he just heard. "What for?"

"I saw one fatal flaw in the plan, and I adjusted it without notifying you. Also..."

_"Uh-oh."_

"We just received a transmission from Karrigan. Follow me."

"Karrigan? Wasn't she taken over by the Zerg?"

"Yes. This way." The magistrate led Raynor to a large view screen with a screensaver of an anime character in a bikini with a cottontail and two bunny ears. The girl was flexing her body and moving around the screen in a lot of sexy ways. 

"One moment." The Magistrate pushed a button, and the anime character was replaced by a large transmission module with Karrigan on it.

In the background could be seen about thirty-seven live, but unconscious, Terran figures. They were roped up in crude rope-like tentacles that seemed to rise up from the metal tile floor. 

"Hello, Magistrate," Kerrigan began to say. "As you can see, we, the Zerg, have captured some of your soldiers, and we are holding them as hostage."

There was an annoying guttural sound to her voice. Raynor said, "How does she speak like that?!"

"Shh!"

"We have made a list of demands that you must follow to ensure their complete safety. Number one: 1,000,000 minnerals and 1,000,000 vespene gas."

"GODDAMMIT! THERE'S NOT EVEN THAT MUCH ON THIS ENTIRE PLANET, AND SHE  
WANTS US TO -"

"Silence, Commander. There's more."

"Number two: An entire planet to ourselves."

"..." Raynor was too shocked to say anything.

"..." The magistrate felt just about the same way.

"Lastly: We want unconditional surrender of the planet Earth. You have 72 hours to comply before we terminate the hostages. Kerrigan out." The video screen went blank.  
  


After a few moments of silence, they heard a raspy voice coming from behind. "Excuse me, Sir."

The magistrate and Raynor turned around in time to see a Specialist assigned as a Ghost in the doorway.

The Ghost saluted and said, "Lieutenant Jones, Ghost Specialist. I couldn't help overhearing the situation. I believe I can slip through their range of detection to save those officers."

"One man," the magistrate said, raising his voice, "plans on doing that? How?"

"Well, look at this map I found of a normal Zerg defensive barrier." Jones produced a blueprint of a Zerg defense grid. "Here they have several different kinds of living explosives. They are best described as Isotopes because they have different compounds for their life systems. You could very well say that they are not in the least land mines, but burrowed sub-Zerg lifeforms very much like they produce when they Infest our Command Centers."

"Yes. We know. What does this have to do with you?"

"I have developed a harder psychic control over the minds of humans than I have of the Zerg, but I do believe that I can make them think that I am not actually there. Even with the Overlords hoverin' over everything..."

"Impossible!" Raynor jumped up to his feet. "I will not stand by and watch any one of my own kind go on a suicide mission! What makes you think that and entire army is outclassed by YOU?!? If you are so incredibly good at this, why didn't you think of it while we were up there?!?"

"Several reasons," Jones began. "Firstly, you had already put together a plan."

Raynor and the Magistrate looked at each other. Raynor sat down.

"Secondly, I cannot concentrate so as to reach my full potential when there are so many gunshots firing off behind me. Third, I did not know that they would drag the privates into the base. It was unforeseeable. Fourth-"

The magistrate interrupted the Lieutenant. "That will be enough. But before we set to work on a good plan, would you mind signing this contract? It says after the mission, if you survive, you will help me erase my memory of this entire event."  
  


So, after sorting everything out, making a plan, performing a cat scan on the Ghost (the cat now has a serious headache), brought up to full health by a medic, and resting for five hours so as to be in top condition (Raynor and the magistrate played Hearts with some cadets during that time), the Ghost set off on his mission.

The magistrate said, "Godspeed, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, sir." The Ghost closed his eyes. Suddenly, he disappeared from sight.

Raynor looked around. "He's gone!"  
  


Jones finally arrived at the Zerg base, and hid himself behind a tree. He glanced over and looked to where the Spore Colonies and the so-called Isotopes were. A few feet in front of him, he noticed small inconspicuous mounts in the ground. Obviously, there were several hundred Zerg units burrowed there to make an ambush. A few meters behind the Spore Colonies, but not in the range of their detection were six of the overbearing Zerg units known as Overlords. The Overlords were going on patrol in an semi-circle around the base. They were spaced about fifteen meters apart, just enough to let a cloaked individual run by if they were fast enough. In the center was an Infested Command Center next to a large Zerg Lair.  
  


Jones set himself to get by the Spore Colony detectors. He slowly and silently crept up (he was still cloaked) and used his special psychic power to add another layer of invisibility to his first one. He slunk silently over to the Spore Colony's location, making sure not to touch it, and silently hovered over the Isotopes to just the outside of the Spore Colony's range of detection. He landed on the ground with a soft "squish," and hoped that the Zerg did not notice him. He looked around, but did not see any sign that he had been detected. He looked forward a ways and tried to time the motion of the Overlords as they scanned the general area. He could tell that these weren't the kinds with the new antennae on their heads. He spotted an opportunity, and leaped forward, still cloaked, making himself float just above the purplish ooze. It was a gamble, but he was almost there.  
  


One of the Overlords saw something move quickly on the edge of the corner of his eye. Instead of alerting anyone else, just in case it was nothing, he floated over to see if there was really anyone or anything there. He looked, but only saw a little baby larva trying to crawl up the side of an Evolution Chamber and falling down. He disregarded it and went on.  
  


"Whew. That was close. Better be more careful from now on." Jones looked around to see whether there was any more danger as of yet. He saw nothing. He re-applied the super-cloaking technique and floated carefully to the next area.  
  


Jones was finally at the Infested Command Center. He looked through one of the open doors. He looked around and saw several slimy, oozing tentacles on the floor. He guessed that they acted as sensors or explosives. He looked around to make sure that no Zerg units were anywhere close by. When he saw none, he continued floating though the strait until he met a four-way intersection. He tried to focus his mind into finding out where the Cadets were, but failed in doing so. 

"I guess I'll just have to wing it." He chose the one on the left.

As he was hovering down the corridor, he turned a corner and saw two small Zerglings there. They weren't even fully grown, but their sudden presence startled him, and made him accidentally uncloak. The Zerglings saw him and leaped at him with a loud hissing sound.  
  


It was very fortunate that Jones had been paying attention at those Zergling Unarmed Defense classes. He threw his gun, muzzle first, at the Zergling on his left, which knocked it off balance, thus disorienting it. He then took the Zergling on the right and smashed it face first into his fist, which, combined with the metal suit made quite the difference. The Zergling was instantly knocked out. He turned around to face the other Zergling and saw that it was already in mid-air leaping at him. He "barrel-rolled" underneath it, grabbing his C-10 Blaster Rifle, took aim, and fired at the spot he though the creature's heart would be.   
  


Blood was everywhere. As soon as the shot made contact, the Zergling collapsed on to it's side and begin to slowly twitch. Jones heard the beats of tens if not hundreds of Zerg creatures hurrying in his direction. He focused as HARD as he could back on the super-cloak. He momentarily closed his eyes and prayed to god that he didn't die right then and there. He opened his eyes and pressed his back against the wall. When the Zerg came around, they inspected the body of the dead Zergling. Some of them began to feast on the cadaver.

"What's going on here?!"

Kerrigan just arrived on the scene and it seemed very apparent that she was in no way in a good mood. "Oh, damn," she said as soon as she saw the carcass of the dead Zergling and the unconscious one. "We have ourselves an intruder." She pointed to the unconscious Zergling. "Take this to the Terran's Infirmary Sector. And guard your stations carefully. Go now! FOR THE SWARM!" 

The rest of the Zergs seemed to understand, hissed in concurrence and ran off in separate directions. One of them began to drag off the Zergling's body. Kerrigan began to pass by Jones, and in an act of momentary loss of thought, he stuck his foot out, disguising it as a tentacle on the ground. Kerrigan tripped, emitting a surprised hiss as she slammed to the ground. She got up and looked down in the place she had tripped.

"Bloody tentacles." she said. She swung her leg back and kicked at it like a football. Jones made a realistic rendition of the tentacle spinning like a miniature satelite and disappearing into the next hall. 

Kerrigan began to walk away, but something seemed to come into focus in her mind. That tentacle had felt pretty immaterial when she kicked it. In fact, it felt like nothing... literally. Her first impulse was to go back and look at the tentacle, but thought of a better plan, and kept walking.

Jones stood there for about a minute in silence and made sure the coast was clear. _"Whoa. I have to be on better guard from now on,"_ he thought to himself. He went back along the way he came.  
  
  
  
Stay tuned to see the next chapter, which at this time is unknown. If you put me on you author alert you may be able to see the next chapter right when it comes out.


	2. Recovery

Disclaimer: Ah, this just says that I never made or owned the rights to Starcraft. Basically a waste of time. Just go on to the story.

Chapter 2: Recovery  


Jake felt a hard slap to his face. "Auhh! Uhg... where am I?" He finally opened his eyes and saw Kerrigan staring him right in the face. Her face all mutated into being a Zerg was as horrifying as to make him scream. "AHHHHHHH!" 

Kerrigan slapped him again. "SHUT UP!" she growled. "You're lucky I don't eat you right here and now, so shut up!"

"Ugh," Jake moaned wearily. "Wha...?" He slipped back into unconsciousness.  
  


Jake felt a sharp pain in his head. He jolted awake with a surprised and shocked look on his face.

"Now stay awake." Kerrigan was still in front of him trying to wake him up. She had just pinched his skull with her claws, something that nobody would feel at all comfortable with.

"Now that I have your attention, I need you to give me some information about your people."

"People," he asked. "Who...?"

"Do you have any Ghosts that have a stronger psychic ability than normal?"

"No..." he said, not really listening. He quickly realized what she said and answered more effectively, "Oh, yeah, we do... Jones..." his head flopped down to his chest.

"Hmm. Special agent Jones... he's in it deep if he's already here...." She broke into annoying guttural hyena laughs that almost woke up the other soldiers.  
  


Jones looked around, suddenly startled by the sudden absence of any hostile encounters. Something was obviously amiss. Something was also blocking any kind of telepathy that he could possibly use other than his "super-cloaking." He came to a door which read, "Control Room." He pressed the button, but the door seemed to make it obvious that nothing was going to get through there without sort of passcode.  
  


"ACCESS DENIED."  
  


There seemed to be only five buttons that he had to press to get in. Normally, Command Centers had a certain code built into them that only the SCVs and people that ran the main system knew. It looked pretty easy to decipher. If this were a normal Command Center, as opposed to an infested one, there might be some people here to catch anyone trying to break in and arrest them, but since this was not the case....  
  
Jones looked at the five-button lock. "Triangle, Star, Circle, Infinity, and Diamond... but what order?"

He looked at the panel for a moment then thought, "Ah, to hell with it!" He took out his C-10 Blaster Rifle and tried to use his mental ability to muffle the sound of the shot. He fired off a round at the panel.  
  


A loud sound (it sounded like a gunshot) startled several Zerglings, a couple pairs of Hydralisks and an Ultralisk in a large room in the command center. Their first instinct was to go check it out, but one of the Hydralisks reminded them that Kerrigan had told all of them to stay here until she said to come out. The others all sank back onto the floor with boredom.  
  


Jones used his mental ability to make himself stick to the ceiling. He looked through all the corridors and listened for the sound of stampeding Zerg units, but when he heard none, he hovered slowly back to the ground. When he got to the floor, he looked at the busted controls of the panel. The lights began to flash and they slowly formed the words, "ACCESS APPROVED," and the door opened. Looking inside, Jones found nothing except a few computer systems that didn't look like they'd be of much help at all... wait... there was something... He went over to a panel of buttons and keyboards and started hacking into the system. Pretty soon, he found a scale map of the entire building. However, only half of it was left there. It seemed to him that if he were to find all those cadets, set a bomb to the core of the nuclear generator and bring the cadets back safely, he would certainly receive a heavy promotion. But modesty told him that he had best just use the map to at least try to find the cadets in the first place before he began thinking about ding-dongs and ho-hos.  
  


Jones downloaded the map of the base to his wrist navigation system. Opening the door to the room, he carefully peered through the door and looked around the hallway. He didn't see any Zerg, as he had expected he would. The door closed behind him as he sidestepped through the hallway. Using the map he loaded into his wrist gadget, he tried to predict where the cadets were. The most logical place to hold 37 people was in the storage closet located on the west wing, but he dropped the idea for the sole reason that the cadets needed to be kept alive. Realizing that he wasn't thinking correctly, he just chose a section at random an hurried there.  
  


Kerrigan watched the blip on the monitor get closer and closer to where she was. He smiled to herself and let out a soft growl as she saw the blip stop at the entrance to the room. Another shot rang out, much like the one before, and the door opened. She stood up as she watched Jones enter the room.  
  
Jones was mentally exhausted, but he still tried to keep his "super cloaking" at its maximum.  
"Jones, is it," Kerrigan asked him.

"What?! You can see me?"

"Of course I can see you. You didn't think your cloaking technique would work THIS long, did you?"

Jones uncloaked himself, giving himself a well-deserved rest. "You knew the whole time?"

"And now you DIE!!"

Kerrigan began to bare her claws up in a move to strike, but Jones got there faster and fired a shot right into her face. The smoke was too thick for a moment, and Jones could not see. After it cleared, Kerrigan was still there, but she just had a large whelt on her face.

Kerrigan clutched her face. "AUGH!! Damn you!"

Jones reloaded and pointed the gun at her head again. "Care to try again?"

Kerrigan closed her eyes and was about to summon the rest of her hordes, but another shot rang out and interrupted her.  
  


Jones had just shot Kerrigan point-blank in the neck, and as a result, she was having trouble breathing. That was to say the least, because now her neck was nearly gone. What tissue and muscle that was left was showing, and Kerrigan fell to her knees.

"Up... yours... you... bastard!" Kerrigan dropped face first into a pool of her own blood.  
  


After a few minutes of trying to contact Kerrigan, Terrasque decided that Kerrigan had been killed by the enemy. He sounded the alarm with a gut-wrenching guttural squeal. "UUUUAHHEEEEEE!!!"  
  


Troy felt a light tapping on his cheek. He started to open his eyes.

"Now that you're awake," a voice said, "you can help he get the others up.

"Where am I," he asked. "The last thing I remember is being dragged off by the Zerg."

"That's right." the voice sounded quite comforting. "You were dragged off...."

Troy jolted awake, getting an idea of what might be happening to him. But seeing a human like him eased him

up a bit. Looking around the room, he saw several Marines and Firebats laying on the ground. He also noticed

bits of tentacle-like rope littering the floor.

"...But you're safe now, so don't worry."

"Oh, that's good," Troy said, his attention now directed to the Ghost in

front of him. "Where's my brother?"

"Your brother?"

"Mitch."

"Oh, yeah, I remember you ran after him, didn't you?"

"Yeah, that was me."

"I think that's him over there, isn't it?"

"MITCH!" Troy jumped up and ran in the direction the Ghost pointed. He knelt down beside his brother and began to shake him a little."

"Mitch, are you OK?!"

"Uhh..." Mitch started to wake up. "Troy?"

"Thank god you're alive!"

"Don't... be melo...dramatic."

Troy chuckled a bit to himself. "Back to your old self, eh?"

A pounding on the door of the room they were in interrupted their emotional performance.

Jones said, "I hate to knock on an emotional brotherly moment but-"  
A Zerg claw that had just began tearing through the door made a loud screeching sound that woke everyone else up.

As soon as everyone was awake, Jones said, "Get your guns! They're over there." He pointed to a small pile of machine guns and disconnected flame throwers.

Everyone wearily stood up and stumbled a little over to their weapons. The Firebats re-connected their flamethrowers, the Marines reloaded their guns, and Jones threw a grenade through the cleft in the door.  
  


The tiny Zergling watched curiously as a small object came out through the gash in the door and bounced with several pings on the floor. It went over to see what exactly it was when the thing exploded, tearing the Zergling to shreds and coating the hallways with blood. In the aftermath of the blast, the Zerg units that did survive were met with pounding shots to their already bloodied bodies. They returned fire with shots of their spines, but it wasn't enough. They were mowed down with attack after attack of strafing Marines.  
  


Slowly but surely, the 37 cadets made their way to the front door of Command Center and carefully looked through the window. They didn't see anything there that would get them just yet, but just to be sure, he pulled out a special bomb made just for the occasion. Engineers called it the Super Coconut bomb after the explosive force it had in a game called "Grubs 2." Jones lobbed the bomb 30 feet from the door and made sure the door was closed securely. He looked out the window as the bomb sat there for a few seconds and exploded. The explosion was so powerful that a Spire was ripped from the ground, fifteen hovering Overlords exploded in mid-air, and three Drones disintegrated. Everything surrounding the bomb died except for the people in the Command Center.  


"When I give the signal," Jones said to the cadets as his finger was hovering over the switch that would open the door, "you start firing at anything that isn't on our side."

The cadets all nodded and readied their weapons.

"Ready... GO!!"  
  


Jones and the cadets walked through the doors and were immediately met by several Sunken Colonies trying to spear them from beneath the surface of the purplish ooze. Jones ripped a grenade attached to his vest off and lobbed it into the center of one Sunken Colony, following up by pulling two more and hurling them into two more. Dodging another spike, Jones turned to the other cadets and said, "DUCK!!"  
  


The explosion of the grenades ripped through the flesh of the three Sunken Colonies, sending blood and muscle flying through the air. Jones saw it was safe to move on when he heard the sploshing sound of the bodily fluids and matter thereof slapping the purple goo, turning an absolutely sick color of maroon.

"LET'S GO!!"

Jones and their cadets began to retreat- Jones at the rear to make sure they got back safely. As the cadets were charging, a strong screech alerted them of Zerglings racing after them.

Jones stopped running and called to the cadets. "Keep running! We'll meet up at the base!!"

The cadets looked hesitant to leave one of their own men in the hands (claws) of the Zerg, but did as they were told and went on past the boundaries of the Zerg base.  


(Later)  


Jim Raynor met them at the outskirts of the base.

"Where's Jones?!"

One of the cadets said, "The fool stayed behind to let us get away from the Zerg!"

"What? Damn him!!"

One of the cadets glanced back for a moment, saw something, and did a double-take. "LOOK! THERE HE IS!!"

Everyone turned and looked behind them. Jones was coming towards them, limping on one leg and clutching his left arm tightly in an attempt to stop the bleeding that was being concealed. Blood was streaming down his face and most of his body, and nearly half of his armor had been ripped off; what was left of it was stained beyond recognition from his own blood. Flesh hung from seemingly random parts of his body, which were letting large amounts of blood slowly drain out.

"SHIT!!" Raynor pulled out a hand-held two-way radio. "MEDIC!"

Someone on the other end began to respond. "Yes?"

"Get a stretcher out front posthaste!!"

"Yes sir!"  
  


Jones' mother showed up for his Award Ceremony. "JONES!! You're alright."

Jones was virtually bandaged up from head to toe. But the blood still soaked through, and you could see where his skin had been torn almost all the way off his body. "Yeah, mom, I'm alright."

Jones' mother was in tears. "Look what they did to you."

"Mom, can we not talk about it right now?"

The magistrate walked over. "But this is what this whole Award Ceremony is for! Had you died, we wouldn't have been able to hold this!"

At this dry humor the Magistrate had, they chuckled a bit to themselves. "Anyway," he said, "It's almost time." The Magistrate saluted, and Jones slowly did the same. Jones moved over to the stage and walked up the steps with a little trouble until Raynor lent a hand.

The Magistrate tapped on the mike a few times to see if it was on, then said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are all gathered here today to commemorate Kelvin Jones for his outstanding bravery and leadership beyond what was necessary in helping the 37 cadets, standing right here beside me," he gestured to his right where the 37 cadets were indeed standing, "from almost certain doom in the hands of the Zerg. It brings me great honor to award Lieutenant Jones with the purple heart and the Congressional Medal of Honor." He then turned to Jones, and said, "Jones... how do you feel?"

"I'll tell you all just how I feel," Jones said. "Terrible! I was nearly completely eviscerated by a team of Zerglings! I have twenty-five puncture wounds all over my body, my right leg's totally shattered, and to show for it, I got a Purple Heart and a Medal of Honor.Yeah, these are all good things to give someone of my physical condition, but in any case, I'll probably die at an early age from this serious trauma I've been through, and you want to know how I feel? I'm going to bed right now. Please try not to wake me up too early." Jones started in the direction of the double doors. The path the doors was very silent. Nobody said a word. Nobody even coughed. As soon as Jones got through the doors, he could hear a muffled cheer from inside the room. My, but this war stuff was a very tiring profession. Jones finally got to his bed and tried to get into the bed as softly and as painlessly as possible. He rolled onto his back, covered himself up and closed his eyes.


End file.
